Syntony applied to Cape Technikon student recruitment

Abstract

The pressing need at tertiary institutions in South Africa and, it is believed internationally, is to apply creative ways of recruiting students. The purpose of this research was to explore the effectiveness of social messaging in a multimedia recruitment tool designed for secondary school learners being recruited at a technikon in the greater Cape Town area. The proposed research was not designed to evaluate current recruitment methods, but rather to investigate the potential of an altemative method to recruit both the traditional and nontraditional student at a tertiary institution. A sample of five schools in the Cape Town Metropolitan area were used for this study.These schools represented a cultural and academic mix, looking at learners from both advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds. The method used for this research was firstly a presentation of the CD-ROM at the Media Laboratory in the then School of Management, Cape Technikon, which was followed by focus group interviews two weeks later at the same schools. An interactive CD-ROM - The Cape Technikon - Tools to empower your future was created to recruit a multicultural student population, but more specifically to recruit the traditional and nontraditional student to the Cape Technikon. The CD-ROM, being both educational and entertaining, addressed aspects of creating a bond, an affiliation between the student and the institution and to enhance the notion of observational learning through role models in order to encourage decision-making. The data was codified according to the various categories of the Syntony Filter Matrix Grid. The results suggest that there is a need for student recruitment to be conducted sensitively, taking cognisance of cultural backgrounds and identities, mother tongue, and role modeling. The notion of syntony ought to play an important role in student recruitment at the Cape Technikon.